Deposits in Jan Dhan accounts soared sharply by around Rs 27,200 crore in just 14 days after the announcement of ban on old Rs 500 and Rs 1000 currency notes.

A man gets his old 500 rupees notes exchanged with 100 rupees at Canara bank in Mumbai. The government discontinued exchange of demonetised notes for valid money on November 24, 2016. (Arijit Sen/HT PHOTO)

Deposits in Jan Dhan accounts soared sharply by around Rs 27,200 crore in just 14 days after the announcement of ban on old Rs 500 and Rs 1000 currency notes.

Total deposits in 25.68 crore Jan Dhan accounts crossed Rs 70,000 crore mark and were at Rs 72,834.72 crore on November 23.

As of November 9, total deposits in these accounts were Rs 45,636.61 crore.

After the surprise demonetisation of 500 and 1,000 rupee notes announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on November 8, deposits in Jan Dhan accounts have increased sharply to 27,198 crore.

However, 22.94 per cent of 25.68 crore accounts still have zero balance.

As on November 16, 25.58 crore accounts with aggregate deposits of Rs 64,252.15 crore were opened under Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) across the country.

With a view to increasing banking penetration and promoting financial inclusion and with the main objective of covering all households with at least one bank account per household, the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojna was launched in August 2014.

Such accounts have a deposit limit of Rs 50,000.

Earlier, both Prime Minister Narendra Modi and finance minister Arun Jaitley had cautioned people against misuse of Jan Dhan accounts for conversion of black into white.

“We are getting some complaints that suddenly monies have popped up in the Jan Dhan accounts, so there is a misuse and that is why the rationing in initial days takes place,” Jaitley had said.

He had cautioned that the departments concerned will act if anything improper is found in the deposits.